Combined snare strainer and muffler.



J. A. MEYER.

COMBINED SNARE STRAINER AND MUFFLER.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 26,1913.

1,104,373. Patented July 21, 1914.

EI 5- IN' EL JD/111M126??? M WW ATTORNEY.

HUTNESSES:

THE NORRIS PETERS CO4. PHOTO- LITHO.. WASHINGTONIII STATES PATENTOFFICE.

JULIUS A. MEYER, OF ST. LOUIS, ,MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO DUPLEXMANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, A CORPORATION OFMISSOURI.

COMBINED SNARE STRAINER AND MUFFLER.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Jones A. MEYER, citizen of the United States,residing at St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Coinbined Snare Strainers and Mufliers, of whichthe following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

My invention has relation to improvements in combined snare-strainersand mufflers and consists, inthe novel details of construction morefully set forth in the specification and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective of a snare-drum showing myinvention applied thereto; Fig. 2 is an enlarged elevation of thetake-up device showing the snares under strain; Fig. 3 is a verticallongitudinal section on the line 33 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4c is a similarsection with actuating lever however swung to muffling position, thetension on the snares being relieved: Fig. 5 is a cross-section on theline 5-5 of Fig. 3; and Fig. 6 is a cross-section on the line 6-6 ofFig. 4:. i

The object of my invention is to provide the ordinary snare-drum withmeans whereby the snares or strings generally under tension and bearingagainst the bottom membrane of the drum may be instantly relaxed orloosened so as to muffle the sound of the drum. A muffled sound isfrequently desirable, and in fact necessary, particularly where a bandor orchestra is engaged in playing Indian pieces, funeral dirges and thelike, and where the tension on the snares must be momentarily releasedto give the drum a tom-tom effect.

A further object is to provide a combined strainer and muffler whichwill operate without binding as a result of warping of the walls of thedrum; one which is simple, positive in action, reliable; and onepossessing further and other advantages more apparent from a detaileddescription of the invention which is as follows Referring to thedrawings, D represents the drum body, a, a, the snares or stringsengaging the bottom head of the drum, and t the drum-head tighteners aswell understood in the art. The fixed ends (not Specification of LettersPatent.

Application filed April 26, 1913.

Serial No. 763,902.

shown) of the snares are secured in position in any well known mannerunderstood by those skilled in the art, the opposite adjustable endsbeing passed and gripped between the clamping plate 1 and the terminalcrosshead 2 of a reciprocating stem or member 3 of the snare take-updevice or strainer. The stem 3 operates loosely in a sleeve orhollowguide bearing 4 carried by, and secured by solder or otherwise,between the sides of, a channel-bracket 6, which is screwed or otherwisesecured to the upper rim of the drum, or that portion projecting beyondthe upper head m. Between the bearing 4: and the bottom wall of thebracket there operates loosely the longitudinal leg 7 of an anglelift-member, through the outer terminal transverse leg 8 of whichloosely passes the terminal neck portion 9 of a screwstem 9 of thetension adjusting screw, said screw terminating in a milled head 10against the bottom of which the leg 8 directly bears. The screw-stem 9is connected to the head 10 by a narrow neck 9, an offset or shoulder 11being thereby formed between said neck and the screw-stem.

The outer corners of the sides of the bracket 6 are formed into lobes orears 12 between which is pivotally mounted the bent actuating lever 13,the short arm of said lever being forked or recessed, the recess 7-freely receiving the neck 9 when the lever is tripped to disengage theleg 8 with which the ends of'the fork members are in frictional orlooking engagement when the lever is swung in position to impose atension on the snares. The forks of the short lever arm while freelyspanning the neck 9' (when the lever is tripped to release the leg 8)will however, foul the shoulder or offset 11, an operation takenadvantage of to insure a movement for the stem 3 should it have atendency to stick in its bearing 4 with the releasing movement of thelever 13.

The operation will now be readily understood from the foregoing. It willbe seen that the free ends of the forks of the short lever arm of themember 13 sweep in a path to engage the inner surface of the leg 8 ofthe lift member. The pressure with which the leg 8 bears against theedges of the forks when the body of the lever 13 has been swung intoparallelism with or against the Patented July 21, 1914.

face of the bearing 4, depends on the tension of the snares and thistension is adjusted before-hand by the drummer by a careful adjustmentof the screw 9, which by rotation in one direction draws the stem 3after it (the latter being polygonal can not turn in its correspondinglypolygonal bearing 4) and thus tightens the snares, and by rotation inthe opposite direction causes an expansion between the parts (3, 9) andthus correspondingly loosens the snares. The latter can thus be adjustedto any tension to suit for a normal sound of the drum. lVhen the lever13 is forced down Or against the bearing 4, it is practically on a deadcenter, the pressure exerted against it (as a result of the tension onthe snares) being substantially parallel to the body of the lever and indirect opposition to its axis of oscillation, so that there is no dangerof the lever working loose from its locked position, under normalconditions of service of the drum. Should it be desirable to instantlymuffle the drum, the musician or drummer trips the long arm of the leveroutwardly thereby oscillating the short arm inwardly and depriving theleg 8 of the lift-piece of its support and allowing the snares toslacken.

The lift-piece 7, 8, screw 9 and the stem 3 with its cross-head 2 moveas a unit and collectively may be considered as the take-up device orstrainer. Should the take-up device for any reason stick when the lever13 is swung to releasing or mufiling position, it is obvious that thefork-members of the short arm of said lever will impinge or strike theoffset or shoulder 11, thus loosening the takeup and insuring theslackening of the strings. By oscillating the lever 13 back to normalposition, the short arm thereof will reengage the lug 8 of thelift-piece and the latter will in turn pick up the screw 9 and stem 3,thus again tightening the snares. The take-up being adjustable orexpansible, it follows that any tension may be imposed on the snares bya proper adjustment of the component parts of said take-up. The ends ofthe fork members of the short arm of the actuating lever form theimmediate supports for the lift-piece and consequently for the take-up,when the snares are under tension, and, as seen from the drawings, thesepoints of support are disposed symmetrically about the longitudinal axisof the lever. That being the case the lever will never bind because theresistance is in a direct line with the axis thereof aforesaid, andthere will be no lateral strains. The leg 8 is of a width to readilypass between the lobes 12, allowing the lift-piece to settle against theshort arm of the lever 13 when the latter is tripped to mufllingposition, the lever being in turn arrested by striking the end of thebearing 4. The bearing 4 may be said therefore to limit orarrest theinward movement of the takeup. In practice the bracket 6 and bearing amay be made of one piece as obvious to the skilled mechanic.

Having described my invention, what I claim is 1. In combination with asnare-drum, a hollow bearing carried by the body of the drum, adrum-snare take-up having a member reciprocable in said bearing in apath substantially parallel to the axis of the drum, and an oscillatinglever adjacent the hollow bearing operating in the plane of the axis ofthe member, for actuating the take up in a given direction for imposingtension on the snares.

2. In combination with hollow bearing carried by drum, a non-rotatablestem ciprocable in said bearing, means for coupling the snares orstrings to said stem, an adjusting screw operating in said stem andterminating in a head, a lift-piece engaging said head, and anoscillating lever engaging said lift-piece and operating in the plane ofthe axis of the screw.

3. In combination with a snare-drum, a hollow bearing carried by thebody of the drum, a non-rotatable reciprocating stem coupled to thesnares and traversing said bearing, a screw operating in said stem andprovided with a terminal head, a lift-piece engaging said head andprovided with an opening affording free passage of the screwtherethrough, a lever pivoted opposite the hollow bearing and providedwith a forked inner arm engaging the lift-piece, the forkmembers beingdisposed symmetrically about the axis of the lever and free to embracethe screw-member for a muffled position of the lever.

4;. In combination with a snare-drum, a hollow guide-bearing secured tothe drumbody, a non-rotatable reciprocating stem coupled to the snaresand traversing said bearing, an adjusting member comprising a screwoperating in the bearing and having a terminal head and a narrow neckbetween the head and screw, said neck being offset from the screw, anangle lift-piece having a longitudinal leg operating freely between theguide-bearing and drum-body, and a perforated leg engaging the head ofthe screw and traversed by the screw and neck thereof, a bent leverpivoted contiguous the bearing and provided with a long outer arm and ashort forked inner arm, the ends of the fork members being disposedsymmetrically about the axis of the lever and engaging the transverseleg of the lift-piece, and spanning the neck and adapted to foul theoffset with a tripping of the lever to muflled position.

5. In combination with a snare-drum, a hollow bearing on the drum, adrum-snare take-up having a member reciproca-ble in a snare-drum, a thebody of the rectilinearly resaid bearing, an oscillating lever forengaging and actuating the take-up in one direction to impose tension onthe snares, with a movement of the lever in one direction, and an oflseton the take-up positioned to be impinged by the lever with a movement ofthe latter in the opposite direction for forcing the take-up in theopposite direction to relieve the tension on the snares should the Intestimony whereof I affix my signature,

in presence of two witnesses.

JULIUS A. MEYER.

Witnesses.

EMIL STAREK, J os. A. MICHEL.

001110! of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patentl,

Washington, D. 0."

